Thread: Big Labor:SEIU Union

Big Labor’s Ugly New Face
Posted by Chuck Muth
June 18, 2006 at 10:37 am
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Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was recently described by CBS News’ Leslie Stahl as “a new breed of union boss” who is “known as a street fighter and will use hardball tactics against companies.” That is generally understood by the non-union world to mean whatever it takes - no matter how unfair, untruthful or underhanded. “Dirty pool” is the SEIU’s game of choice.

Which is why it should come as no surprise that the SEIU is one of the leading advocates for an illegal alien amnesty program. As a top SEIU official once told the liberal Air America radio network, “You need to legalize the 11 million people who are here on an undocumented status. Many of them are our members.” Which is why Stern’s underlings were key organizers behind the massive illegal immigration marches in Los Angeles this spring, handling “security” and, according to the L.A. Times, coordinating “the more than 100 buses that dropped off marchers from throughout California, Las Vegas and a few Southwestern cities.”

Under the circumstances, perhaps a name change is in order: The SEIAU - Service Employees and Illegal Aliens Union.

While past union bosses rightly recognized that illegal aliens were - er, how to put this gently, um, ILLEGAL - and drove down wages for American workers, the new breed see only a huge source of new, under-educated, unskilled, easily-led, ignorant dues-payers. Any adverse effect they might have on American society is outweighed by the fact that these illegal meal-tickets will keep the new breed of union bosses living high off the hog in the comfortable fashion they’ve become accustomed.

But it’s not just SEIU’s recruitment efforts of illegal aliens which casts this “new breed” of union agitators in such poor light in the public’s eyes; it’s their disingenuous, if not downright dishonest, “negotiating” tactics, as well. Consider, for example, the SEIU’s current war on hospitals. To hear the union tell it, you’d think hospital management couldn’t care less if patients by the truckload dropped dead on their gurneys - as long as the hospitals continued to make a profit.

According to Reuters, the SEIU is threatening to strike three California hospitals later this month, claiming the hospitals are chronically understaffed. They’re demanding that the union be granted equal votes on staffing decisions with hospital management. What a lovely negotiating tactic: trying to scare the tar out of the sick and elderly with false claims of insufficient numbers of dues-paying clerical workers, nurses and janitors.

Ditto SEIU tactics in Las Vegas, where union agitators bemoan “the stress, strain, and danger that staff encounter every day in the hospitals because of unsafe staffing levels.” One union nurse even whines uncontrollably about a week-end secretary being eliminated. “We have critically ill patients on life support who need our constant attention to keep them alive,” union agitator Atchala Wongkovit says. “Are the patients less sick on the weekends?”

Yes, according to the SEIU the only thing keeping patients on life support alive is a dues-paying weekend union secretary. I guess that means critically ill patients will be keeling over by the dozens every Saturday and Sunday from this point forward. Somebody better alert the funeral homes so they can beef up their own secretarial staff on Mondays.

The union is also demanding a “forced union dues clause” and a “no escape” dues check-off clause which would make it “even harder for nurses and techs to change their minds and stop paying the union.” That’s the SEIU’s way. They’re the real-life Borg for vulnerable workers who don’t know any better: “You will be assimilated; resistance is futile.”

Yes, the SEIU is the face of a new breed of union agitators. It’s a face only a mother could love.
http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/?p=313

moosetracks,

I'm going to post this here, because Andy Stern realllllyyy concerns me. I saw one of the News Magazines (I think it was either 60 Minutes or Dateline) story that they did on him, in which it showed him in Europe, also. Also, he was very public down here in Miami, in the janitors' strike at the U of M. I did a quick search, but couldn't find the above link. So, I went to his site...et voila, there's the info. Read between the lines, folks....when I have more time, I'll try to find the link to that story...I'd like you to be able to see the SIGNS in the marches for 'workers rights'. They even discussed immigration. If a better reseacher than myself could find it, it would be appreciated. .....

http://www.seiu.org/about/officers_bios/stern_bio.cfm

Andrew Stern
PRESIDENT
SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION (SEIU), CLC

Andy Stern is intent on "forging new organizing models and public policies to reward work fairly," says Fortune magazine. Dubbing him "a different kind of labor chief," The New York Times Magazine described Stern as a man who "intends to create a new, more dynamic" labor movement." The Washington Post calls him "a charismatic leader" whose process gives "strong voice to union rank and file."

After launching a widely publicized debate about the fundamental change needed to reverse labor's decline, Stern led SEIU out of the AFL-CIO to focus the movement on uniting the nine out of 10 American workers not yet in a union, and was the driving force behind the formation of Change to Win, a new labor federation of seven major unions representing six million members.

The Change to Win Federation draws on the strategies and track record that have led the 1.8 million-member SEIU to become the largest and fastest-growing union in North America. SEIU now spends half its annual budget helping workers gain a voice on the job and since Stern took office in 1996, more than 900,000 new members have united in SEIU, the majority women and workers of color.

SEIU has become the largest health care union, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care; the largest property services union, including building cleaning and security; and the second largest public employee union.

Stern is determined to build a truly global union designed to meet modern challenges and help ensure that workers, not just CEOs, benefit from today's global economy. His philosophy has led SEIU to abandon the traditional local and regional approach to organizing in favor of a 21st century, industry-based global model that works with unions in other countries that share common employers. A frequent overseas traveler, Stern envisions partnerships between multinational companies and labor to raise wages and standards for workers, while helping businesses become more competitive in America and internationally.

An aggressive advocate for a health care system that helps U.S. companies compete worldwide while providing quality, affordable coverage to every American, Stern has also invited business leaders to partner with SEIU in the national political arena to establish a more efficient, cost-effective model to replace our ailing employer-based structure. His commitment to the issue also led Stern to create SEIU's Americans for Health Care project, a grassroots network to make health care a top political priority in key states across the country.

Stern began his union career in 1973 as a state social service worker and rank-and-file member of SEIU Local 668. He become the first elected full-time president of the local when he was 27, and two years later in 1980 was named to the union's International Executive Board. In 1984, he began overseeing the organizing and field services programs, and in 1996 was elected SEIU's International President.

Stern chairs Wal-Mart Watch, the advocacy group responsible for challenging the retail giant to become a leader in corporate responsibility toward its workers and host communities, and also serves on the board of directors of the Aspen Institute, Rock the Vote, and the Broad Foundation. A frequent blogger, Stern weighs in on economic, political, and labor issues on SEIU.org and as a regular guest contributor to well-known online outlets such as the Huffington Post.

OK folks: found it, but it's way too long to post here. So here's the link and 4 paragraphs from the piece. Didn't see a video. One day I'll learn how to search

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/ ... age3.shtml


Andy Stern: The New Boss
Lesley Stahl Profiles The Powerful Union Leader

(Page 3 of 3)May 14, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Stern (CBS)

It's not enough for Andy Stern to take on the largest retailer in America, he's now taking on the world. Recently, he was demonstrating with a group of janitors in London.

Like the head of a big company today, he's going global — recruiting without borders. He has moved organizers into nine different countries.

"You like to say, 'Workers of the world unite.' Which sounds, it is Karl Marx. But that's your, that's your kind of slogan now," Stahl tells Stern.

"Well the good news is, Communism is dead," Stern explains. "But the truth is the phrase means a lot because all of a sudden workers in London and workers in the United States are working for the same employer and the same owners."

I do not want to be global anything.

I want to very simply be a citizen of the United States of America with government "Of the people, by the people, and for the people...". (which we clearly do not have).

I want to buy American made products.

I want our children to learn about the United States.

I do not want my children to have to learn another language.

I have come to the conclusion that I want to be an isolationist. I am becoming decidingly anti-global, anti-the rest of the world, and I have no interest in what other countries think about the USA and I want the USA out of all other countries.

In my opinion, I believe if people didn't have Unions, they would be better off...after all Unions sure didn't stop outsourcing and illegal aliens.

I base this on my area. We had many factories in our small town, including Wilson sporting goods. The workers were constantly going on strike.

I remember my Dad telling a family friend, that they would eventually put themselves out of work....and they did.

The companies closed up and moved out...all of them! Our family friend became a janitor at the bank....had a heart attack one night while cleaning and wasn't found till morning.

I was forced to join a Union and all they did for me, was take dues out of my check...period! There are 9 branches where I worked, two were Union, the non-union branches, got paid more than us.

I always wonder, why Americans don't fight them?

Originally Posted by dlm1968

I do not want to be global anything.

I want to very simply be a citizen of the United States of America with government "Of the people, by the people, and for the people...". (which we clearly do not have).

I want to buy American made products.

I want our children to learn about the United States.

I do not want my children to have to learn another language.

I have come to the conclusion that I want to be an isolationist. I am becoming decidingly anti-global, anti-the rest of the world, and I have no interest in what other countries think about the USA and I want the USA out of all other countries.

DITTO

I think I am also becoming an isolationist. I am tired of our soldiers being the ones to police the world, when no other country will stand up to their own trouble makers.

We have groups in our Country right now, that want our soldiers to be the World's police.

I too don't care what the world thinks of us....just leave us alone, and would hope we would leave everyone else alone too!